Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement: “According to preliminary data, an unidentified explosive device packed with metal objects went off today in the dining room of the Kerch Polytechnic College.”

It said information on the victims is being clarified and that “most of them are teenagers.”

Russia’s TASS news agency said Sergey Aksyonov, the head of the Crimean government, said the perpetrator of the “terror act” committed suicide.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that the possibility that this was a terror attack “is being considered.”

“The President has instructed the Ministry of Health and Emergency Services Ministry to take emergency measures to assist victims of this explosion, if necessary, to ensure the urgent transportation of seriously wounded patients to leading medical institutions of Russia, whether in Moscow or other cities,” Peskov said.
Russian state media, quoting emergency-services officials, reported earlier that a suspected gas explosion at a technical college claimed several lives and injured dozens of people. State television channel Rossiya-24 said 200 military personnel had been sent to the site of the incident.

Crimea — a peninsula south of Ukraine, which is surrounded by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov — was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014.

Crimea’s head, Aksyonov, announced on Russian state TV that there would be three days of mourning.